Roland’s discovery in a 15th-century church

As a sales planner for ASSA ABLOY Entrance Systems in the Netherlands, Roland Wortelboer is always on the lookout for doors. On a recent trip he found a door installation that he really liked in an unexpected place.

It was my girlfriend Machteld's birthday, and we had decided to spend the day in Deventer, where she was born," Roland says. "It is a fairly old city, with nice buildings. We had a good lunch, then took a walk through town."

Machteld wanted to see the church that she was baptized in, St. Lebuinus Church, or Lebuïnuskerk in Dutch. The church was built between 1450 and 1525, but its history goes back much further.

"The first church there was originally built in 700, but it was destroyed and rebuilt many times over the years," Roland says. "When we came to the church, I saw our sliding doors in the entrance. I said to Machteld, 'Look, this is a door from my company. Is this fantastic, or what?'"

Automatic doors on winning picture

In his winning submission to the #doornerds competition, Roland describes the doors as "two beautiful, full-glazed telescopic doors." He approached the doors three or four times, watching them smoothly slide open, like the door nerd he is. His girlfriend, who took the photo, insisted that he be in it.

Roland has a sharp eye for doors, as a sales planner he spends a lot of his time behind the scenes, setting up sales meetings for account managers.

"When I started this job 25 years ago, we were not really well known on the market then," he says. "We had about 40 phonebooks that we looked through, calling all contractors, architects and hospitals to set up sales meetings."

Years later, Roland says he is still very happy with this job. He not only sets up meetings for current customers, but researches new projects that would benefit from solutions from ASSA ABLOY Entrance Systems solutions.

"What makes our company unique is that we have all kinds of doors; pedestrian, industrial and high-performance" he says. "In Holland, we have a fantastic service department, where customers only need to call one number to get everything they need."

And how did it feel to win the #doornerds competition? "I was very surprised," Roland says. "I did not expect it because I had already seen so many fantastic photos. I would like to thank everyone again."

Roland won an iPad mini with the competition, which he says his girlfriend Machteld is very happy with. He also won the local #doornerds competition that the Netherlands' office held.

In total, more than 1,000 photos were submitted, from all over the world, during the eight weeks of the #doornerds competition. Roland's photo is just one example of the many participants who shared their pride in their interest of doors, from the smallest to the largest.